Monday, October 22, 2012

Beginner's Pluck. Ciaran O'Driscoll

Beginner’s Pluck.
Interviewed by Sue Leonard.
Published in the Irish Examiner, on 20th October, 2012.

Beginner’s Pluck Ciaran O’Driscoll.

After school, Ciaran joined the civil service; then he joined a religious order, leaving after ten years. He went to London where he worked as a secondary school teacher, before studying philosophy. Before retirement, he worked as a lecturer in Limerick School of Art and Design.

All that time he was writing poetry. He has published six collections; and has written a childhood memoir, some radio plays, and some essays on poetry. He has won the James Joyce Literary Millennium Prize, the Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship in poetry, and he is a member of Aosdána.

Who is Ciaran O’Driscoll?

Date of birth: 2nd October, 1943 in Kilkenny.

Education: Rochestown College, Cork. University College Cork, BA, University of London, MA.

Second Novel: I’m planning to travel somewhere and live there for a while. I hope this will give me a setting, and some characters.

Top Writing Tip: I believe immersing yourself into an unusual setting can give you inspiration for a novel.

Web/Twitter: @CiaranODriscoll

The Debut: A Year’s Midnight. Pighog Press: €13.20 Kindle: €4.69.

George and his partner, Barbara move to Italy. George is recovering from a breakdown, and hopes to find peace. But the rural scenery, and in particular, a field, starts to bother him. He falls apart, as memory of childhood abuse starts to surface. He turns to drink, develops obsessions, and has hallucinations about a child poltergeist.

“We went to live in Umbria, when our son was about four. I went with the intention of writing a novel, and I did complete a first draft. I finished a version, but then the idea of a memoir took over. Recently I rewrote the novel, but in a darker form.”

The Verdict: An atmospheric tale toying with dark subjects, and told with a lot of black humour.

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About Me

I'm a full time ghost writer and feature writer covering a huge variety of subjects.
I'm mad about books. So the 'job' of interviewing authors and reviewing books isn't too much of a slog.I write the weekly Beginner's Pluck column in the Irish Examiner.
I also write Health, Parenting, and General Features for The Irish Independent and The Irish Examiner; Book Reviews for the Examiner and Books Ireland; Teen features for 'Face Up' magazine, and Faith profiles for 'Reality.'
I've ghost written four books; the latest, An Act of Love, co-written with Marie Fleming was a number one best seller. the first, My Life in THeir Hands, by Susan Kerwin with Sue Leonard, is on holds, waiting for Susan to settle a legal case. Another reached number two, and was in the bestseller top five for seven weeks. I also do some guest lecturing, teaching, and public interviews.
My book, Keys to the Cage, was published by New Island in 2010.